No way out? Boaters cheer fed decision to dredge inlet

Ever since Hurricane Sandy pushed past the Florida coast last fall, sand — large amounts of it — have washed into Ponce de Leon Inlet, making conditions ever more hazardous for boating.

DINAH VOYLES PULVERENVIRONMENT WRITER

Ever since Hurricane Sandy pushed past the Florida coast last fall, sand — large amounts of it — have washed into Ponce de Leon Inlet, making conditions ever more hazardous for boating. Volusia County officials were happy to learn last week that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will include the shoaling sands in a series of emergency projects to repair damages from the storm, which swept up the U.S. coast last October The agency will pay for a dredge to come into the inlet and remove some of the sand, said Joe Nolin, director of Volusia County's coastal division. "It's good news," Nolin said. "It's much needed. "A tremendous amount of sand was pushed in off the continental shelf into the inlet during some extremely high tides we had during the Sandy event and in the weeks thereafter," Nolin said. The corps issued its findings last week. Agency officials announced they will use emergency, supplemental operations and maintenance money to repair Sandy-related damages at seven inlets along the east coast of Florida and inside the Intracoastal Waterway. Other inlets include Port Canaveral and St. Augustine Inlet. The Corps also announced it surveyed 16 other projects in Florida to investigate damages and problems created by the rough surf during Sandy and Tropical Storm Debby and will spend $147 million to complete 12 of them. Just when the local dredging begins or how much the corps spends is still being worked out, said corps spokeswoman Amanda Ellis. "We just received approval for the funds," Ellison said. "Once they award the contracts they'll have a better understanding about how much each project will cost." The work will be accelerated, Ellison said, and completed as soon as possible. But for fishermen, big boat owners and others, the help for Ponce de Leon Inlet can't come too soon. "In the last two or three months it has just dramatically changed there," said Lee Carver, a boat captain with the Critter Fleet, a fishing charter service out of Ponce Inlet. The difficulties begin once boats enter the inlet, pass the jetties and start turning, Carver said. "If you're somebody who doesn't know what's going on, you're going to have a problem." The Coast Guard has had trouble maintaining the (navigation) markers in the right places because of the shoaling in the federal channel, Nolin said. The shoaling is especially bad in the channels on the north side of the inlet, Carver said, near Disappearing Island and toward the commercial docks in the town of Ponce Inlet near the lighthouse. The channel is "closing up now rapidly and it's very dangerous in there," Carver said, and the shoaling continues to get worse farther west. The Critter Fleet, for example, has two options to get to its dock, one from a channel directly out of the inlet and a second farther north out of the Intracoastal. "We have to come in the north entrance now," Carver said. "The south entrance closed up and only small boats can get out now. "A week ago I was having to put people on the bow of the boat just to get into that channel," he said. "Now we're scheduling trips around the tides. At the rate it's going, we're afraid within about a month we're not going to be able to get through there at low tide." Any help at all will be beneficial, he said, but added that a longer-term, more expansive dredging project is needed. There is a strong interest in engaging the corps annually to dredge, Nolin said, with the county's port district and the corps sharing the cost. County officials have discussed the concept with the corps, but so far the program hasn't come up for discussion at the County Council.